MAPLEWOOD — The Twin Cities metro area’s first edible-hemp store is now open.

Minnesota Hempdropz opened Aug. 11 in Maplewood. The store is the first in the metro area that is entirely devoted to hemp products for consumption, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported .

“I am getting a lot of questions,” said Abbie Schneider, who co-owns the store with Doug Herkenhoff.

Hemp is related to marijuana, but the product is legal in Minnesota and doesn’t give a high. It has been grown for thousands of years for fiber used in clothing, paper and rope.

The store specializes in products with cannabidiol, one of the active ingredients in hemp and marijuana. Some of the store’s CBD-containing products include face cream, tincture, water soluble drops, gummies and chronic pain cream.

The product can help relieve pain, anxiety, insomnia, acne and seizures, according to CBD experts.

“Marijuana is on the THC side, and we are on the opposite side, with no THC at all,” Schneider said.

The store shows the limbo between illegal and legal drug use, said Tom Gallagher, chairman of the Minnesota chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Gallagher said marijuana and hemp are linked in public perception despite their different uses and effects. The store is a step toward the public acceptance of legalization of marijuana, he said.

“Hemp and even medical marijuana were legal into the 1950s,” he said.

Medical marijuana was legalized in Minnesota in 2015 and sold only with a doctor’s approval. Individuals can get CBD products without a prescription.